ZOOLOGY OPTIONAL STRATEGY

Anurag Mishra

I secured AIR 6 in Indian Forest Services examination, 2019. My optional subjects

were Zoology and Forestry.

I finished the Integrated 5 year BS-MS from IISER, Pune (2010-15). After that I
worked in research positions related to ecology and evolutionary biology, first at the
National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore and then at ETH, Zurich
till May 2017.

After that I have been preparing for IFS, though I think my 2018 attempt was lacking
direction in every possible way.

This article is about Zoology as an optional for IFS (the focus is more on IFS, though I
have touched upon CSE in some points as well)

• People opting for Zoology, as an optional would probably have had Zoology in
their graduation. The course for CSE/IFS is actually lesser than the overall BSc
course, which means you have studied more or less the entire curriculum once.
• The course for CSE and IFS are 95% overlapping. Only places where they are
somewhat different are
i) Instrumentation
ii) Developmental Biology: Spermatogenesis, Oogenesis, Fertilisation are not a
part of IFoS syllabus
• Mostly made notes of each topic, strictly adhering to syllabus and areas of previous
year questions. Used diagrams and schematics extensively. The goal of making
notes was to not have to refer back to original books/websites again.

You can access my Zoology notes on this Google Drive link. I have left blank
spaces for diagrams. I printed them out and drew the diagrams myself.

• Condensed the topics asked in PYQs to revise in the few days before the exam, or
on the morning of the exam.
• While I did order Evolution material, my experience with them was terrible. I
have written about that in detail here on Quora.

Pros of Zoology as optional

• Questions are along expected lines (so far).

• 60-70% questions can be answered from previous year questions.
• Can score 300+ with proper preparation.
Cons of Zoology as optional

• Vast syllabus. Took me about 2 months (of about 8 to 10h a day) to cover it once. I
would not recommend Zoology as one of your optionals if you plan on starting it
from scratch after the CSE Mains for IFS.
• Needs lot of revisions (atleast 4) to remember things like scientific names, protein
names etc + Diagram practice.
• Not much overlap with other papers in GS. Maybe, a little bit with environment
concepts, but very negligible.

Sources

• I had Evolution material, but did not rely on it much. The material for paper 1 is
quite bad and misleading. The material for paper 2 is a bit excessive, but you can
scan for parts useful for the exam. Also, the Evolution material is entirely CSE
oriented. The bits that are exclusively for IFS are not covered.
• RL Kotpal books on Vertebrates and Invertebrates (Paper 1 Section A). Only read
the parts that are mentioned in the syllabus.
• You can use the Notes for Zoology website for material on almost every topic
• What is expected in the exam is easily available on Slideshare. e.g. you need
structure of Nephron, google “slide share nephron structure” and find material (text
+ diagram) that you can directly copy into your notes.
• There are lots of other recommended books: Guyton & Hall, Voet & Voet,
Lehninger, Townsend and so on.. I did not refer to any of them. My notes are
almost entirely from Slideshare.

Answer Writing

• Write clear, concise answers.

• Use diagrams extensively.
• Break down processes and workflows into schematics wherever possible (e.g. life
stages, cell cycles, developmental cycles, physiological processes etc.)
• If for any question, you have only enough time to either write text OR draw a
diagram, always choose to draw a labelled diagram and maybe scribble out a
few points in the diagram itself.
• I did not do any mock tests in Zoology. The questions are mostly straight
forward, so I believe grasping content is more important than writing practice.
• While I had the Evolution test series with me, I did not find it very useful. The
difficult questions asked by UPSC are difficult at a conceptual level, without
deviating from the syllabus. On the other hand, Evolution tests had questions which
were factually difficult.
Specific Topic Wise

Paper 1 Section A

• Kotpal books are sufficient for both Vertebrates and Invertebrates

• This is one section in which I had zero prior learning in (did not have biology in
class 12th), and I had not prepared more than 30% of this section even at the time
of IFS mains.
• If you find this part challenging, refer to PYQs and select certain topics that are
often repeated in exams. Prioritise areas that are asked repeatedly.
• I personally (and know many others who do so) find Chordates much easier to
remember than Non Chordates or Comparative Anatomy.
• The bright side for this section is that the questions are always very direct. Once
you master this part, it becomes very high scoring.

Paper 1 Section B

• Ecology: Very particular topics repeated like climate change, biodiversity,

biogeochemical cycles, ecotones, pollution.
• Economic Zoology
1) Accounts of different animal rearing methods (apiculture, sericulture, lac
culture, aquaculture, prawn culture, vermiculture) including set up, challenges
faced (don’t ignore the socio-economic aspects here), scope for the industry in
India
2) Accounts of the diseases: causal pathogen and vectors, disease progression
(diagram is a must), symptoms, prevention and cure, scenario in India.
3) Pest: life cycle (diagram must), damage caused, prevention methods
4) Biotechnology, Gene Therapy etc.
5) I did not do the cattle diseases part. Never saw any question asked from it in
PYQs.
• Ethology: Very particular topics are repeated — imprinting, conditioning,
biological rhythm, social behaviour, etc.
• Instrumentation: The course is kind of different from CSE mains. Visualise
diagram, set up, working, basic principle of operation and applications for each
instrument.
• Biostatistics: Basic concept + diagram + application for each statistical concept.

Paper 2 Section A

• Genetics: Genetic Code, Mendel’s Laws, HW law, Sex Determination, Inheritance

patterns. Don’t ignore the numerical questions possible from HW equilibrium,
Mendel’s laws and Sex Linked Inheritance.
• Cell Biology: Accounts of organelles, cell cycle and cell division, replication,
transcription and translation (and the difference between prokaryotes and
eukaryotes for these processes) with diagrams.
 • Evolution and Systematics: Theories of evolution, Lamarck vs Darwin, Patterns
of Evolution, Continental Drift, Taxonomy methods, ICZN code

Paper 2 Section B

• Biochemistry: Biomolecules part is not too rewarding in effort to output terms.

Hormones, Krebs cycle, Electron Transport Chain, Enzyme Kinetics, Co-ezymes
and Immunoglobins are the most important parts. I did not try to remember
Glycolysis, seeing it was asked only once, and I find that process downright
impossible to remember with all steps and enzymes.
• Physiology: Prepare short and concise notes of the areas mentioned in syllabus,
with informative diagrams. Physiology is a never ending sea of information, try not
to get sucked into things that are irrelevant from exam point of view.
• Developmental Biology: Another part which I had very little prior learning in.
Focus on important parts like fertilisation to neurulation (all stages, with
informative diagrams), teratogenesis, organogenesis of eye and heart, ontogeny
recapitulates phylogeny (Von Baer’s laws).